ho dwell two hundred miles back from the coast. What did Makar
tell you?"

Guy repeated the Arab's warning, and Melton stood for a moment in deep
thought.

"I suspected as much," he said finally. "Never before have there been so
many Arabs and Somalis from the interior at Berbera. Only yesterday a
caravan of two thousand camels arrived from Harar in the Galla country.
Something is wrong, I have felt certain, and now Makar confirms my
fears."

A glimmering suspicion of the truth flashed over Guy's mind at this
juncture, but he hesitated to speak.

"Now then," continued Melton, "this can mean nothing but a massacre. The
only soldiers in the place are about sixty of the Bombay infantry, who
were sent down here from Zaila, and as for the fortifications, they are
nothing but a few mud walls. There they lie yonder," and he pointed to
an English flag floating over the house-tops some distance away.

"We are only wasting time here," he added. "We'll look about a little
and then I'll decide what to do. I don't want to raise any false alarm."

They turned back to the main avenue. The crowds still surged up and
down, and the tumult seemed as harsh and discordant as ever, but the
place had nevertheless undergone a change since they had left it a short
time before. Little bartering was going on, and but few Arabs and
Somalis were to be seen. Those on the street were mostly harmless
traders from Aden and Cairo.

"What has become of all the Arabs?" asked Guy.

"That is just what I want to know," said Melton; "I'll soon find out,
though. Walk as fast as you can now, Chutney, and look as unconcerned as
possible."

Melton led the way down the street for a little distance, and, turning
into a side passage, soon stopped before a low, one-story building.

A dark-skinned fellow clad in ordinary Egyptian costume stood in the
doorway, and with a cry of surprise Guy recognized Mombagolo, Forbes'
trusty savage servant, who did much good service for them when they were
in Burma together.

Their greeting was brief and hasty.

"I have work for you, Momba," said Melton. "Something is going on in the
town, I don't know just what. You can go anywhere without being
suspected. Find out what you can, and then come down to the wharf. Don't
return here."

The man hastened away at once, and then Guy and Melton started for the
shore.

"I won't give any alarm at the garrison," said Forbes, as they hurried
along. "I'll wait till Momba report